Alveda King, niece of MLK, speaks against abortion in talk at MU

Alveda King spoke on Monday, April 28, at MU about her views against abortion. King is the niece of Martin Luther King Jr.

Credit Heather Adams / KBIA

Political activist Alveda King, the niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, spoke at MU on Monday about what she considers to be the twenty-first century’s civil rights movement – the movement against abortion.

King said she’s been part of the anti-abortion movement since conception – she just didn’t know it yet. Her mother originally wanted to abort her.

“And my grandfather stepped up and said that he had seen me in a dream three years before, and my mother could not abort me because I was going to bless people,” King said.

King went on to have seven children, as well as two abortions. Now, she advocates for the rights of unborn babies.

“I believe that a woman has the right to choose what she does with her body,” King said. “But the baby’s not her body. So then the question must come, where’s a lawyer for the baby?”

She said that though her opposition to abortion started long before her faith, that faith is very important to her now. For guidance, she looks to Psalm 127, along with the men in her life.

“I learned the miracles of God, the miracles of Jesus from my daddy, the love of God from my uncle, ML, and the faith of God from daddy King, my granddaddy,” King said.

King advocates for natural family planning. She said women who get pregnant but aren’t ready can receive help from pregnancy care centers.

King also said that abortion is never the answer, even after situations such as rape and incest.

“But we feel that the second wrong is going to correct the first wrong.” King said. “But we know that two wrongs can never correct a right.”

Instead of an abortion, King said, a woman needs love and support.

King compared racism, sexual perversion and reproductive genocide to a three-headed monster, saying that these three things have done a lot to hurt our society.

King’s talk was hosted by Mizzou Students for Life, an MU group opposed to abortion. Reagan Nielsen, the previous president, said it’s important to talk to college-aged women about this problem because 46 percent of abortions are given to 18 to 24-year-olds.

“We just want to expose the truth. I think that’s the number one thing we can do,” Nielsen said. “When they know the truth, they can make up their own mind.”

At the end of her speech, King asked the audience for questions. One audience member asked how to get people who are abortion rights supporters to come to anti-abortion events. King said facts are important, but encouraged her audience to listen to those who support abortions, and find out why they do.

King also said she wants to get a message to President Barack Obama.

“My daughters don’t need abortions. My daughters don’t need free birth control. They need a good education, opportunity to have good jobs, happy relationships when they are ready for them,” King said. “So can you put some of this money in the HHS mandate with the free abortion, can you put that into better education?”

She reminded the audience that “we are one human race” and that “we just have to get it right together.”

This story was published in partnership with Columbia Faith & Values. Find more stories like this one at ColumbiaFAVS.com.